Spinach Calzones

with homemade marinara and house salad

These calzones were so popular when we debuted them in 2014 that we're bringing them back for this Favorites Week. If you have extra marinara sauce, freeze the remainder to dress a pasta.Smarts: Double up and you can have extra calzones to freeze.

Prep

Pizza dough - Divide dough in half, cover in some flour, and let rest for at least 30 minutes outside of fridge before rolling out. This is tip #1 to good pizza - resting dough gives gluten time to chill out, which makes the dough much more pliable.

Spinach - Pulse spinach in a food processor, which will break it up significantly. You can also chop it finely. (Can be done up to 3 days ahead)

Make calzone filling - Mix spinach with mozzarella, ricotta, and crushed red pepper flakes. (Can be done up to 3 days ahead)

Garlic / Shallots - Prep as directed. Can be combined into 1 container. (Can be done up to 4 days ahead)

Make

Watch this video to see how to assemble calzones - it’s much better than just the directions. Roll out pizza dough into an oval shape (if you have a pizza paddle, do it on that, so you can easily ease the calzone onto a sheet pan). Place filling onto one half of the dough, leaving about a 3/4” / 1.9cm) edge. Brush the edge with egg wash, and fold dough over the filling and crimp with a fork. Brush top of calzone with egg wash and transfer to heated sheet pan. Repeat for remainder of calzones. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until golden.

While calzones are baking, heat a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add cooking oil and then garlic and shallots to heated oil. Saute for ~2 minutes and then add crushed tomatoes with brown sugar, salt, and black pepper. Simmer for ~10 minutes. Season to taste with more salt and pepper.

Prepare vinaigrette by whisking together balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, Dijon, and cooking oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss vinaigrette with cucumbers, tomatoes, and greens.

Enjoy calzones fresh out of the oven drizzled with marinara sauce! If you have extra sauce, freeze for a future pasta dish!

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spinach cheese filling worked great! Tasted better than expected. It was hard for me to even the thickness of the crust, and dough was not elastic enough to fit a desired size. I used my own pizza dough recipe.